Carla Bley, Andy Sheppard and Steve Swallow revisit classic Bley compositions in an exceptional album recorded in Lugano last year by Manfred Eicher. Included here are spirited new versions of “Utviklingssang” and “Vashkar”, and the suites “Les Trois Lagons”, “Wildlife” and “The Girl Who Cried Champagne”. Carla’s robust tunes are vividly conveyed, all members solo compellingly, and the trio has never sounded better.
Trios is one of the outstanding jazz albums of the season and marks the first time that a new Carla Bley album has appeared on ECM itself (rather than the ECM-distributed WATT label, which has been her primary platform for 40 years).